Chapter 28: Flipped Personality
The Draugr emerged from the broken vehicles and made way to a clearing in an intersection. It looked down and saw Venus Knight approaching with a metal backpack holding an attached device in his hands. The beast growled as it swung it's flail back, "You! You have hurt my kin! I shall… UGH!" Venus Knight fired a stream straight at the monster's chest and blew a chunk of it out. Laying exposed was the monster's heart and lungs. It released its weapon and put its hand to its chest which also became charred by the proton beam.
"You ain't gonna do anything, Verga!" He powered the weapon down as he approached closer, screaming as he did, "You so much as scratch the paint on another car, I'm gonna tear your ass apart!" Kylie cautiously walked behind the Knight as she watched him change canisters on his Proton Gun, "You come into my city, threaten my friends and family, and bitch when one of yours gets fried?" The Draugr looked behind itself still nursing its hand as Venus Knight locked the canister in place and powered the pack back on, "You started this, but I'm sure as hell gonna end it, Pacheco! And just to be sure…"
As he looked down onto the gun and went to crank the main power dial, the Draugr made its move. With its good hand it grabbed the nearby traffic signal and ripped it out of the ground. Kylie screamed, "Eduardo! Look out!" The Knight looked up and saw what was happening. He quickly dropped the thrower and threw his hands up, the orange shield surrounding him again. The concrete-encased end of the signal flew over the monster's head and accelerated down onto the shield.
Tuxedo Mask had just laid Sailor Venus down into a nearby alley when the both of them and Sailor Moon heard Kylie scream out. The masked man looked to Sailor Moon, "Look after her; I have to help!" He quickly stood and dashed away.
The shear impact of the device buried Venus Knight's shield into the pavement. The blow actively knocked him unconscious, the shield disappearing as he collapsed. Kylie screamed as the strike occurred,"No! Eduardo!" She saw the monster wind up again and go to strike the man down…
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! Multiple roses stuck into the Draugr's swinging arm making the creature drop its new weapon on the ground. Kylie heard Tuxedo Mask call to her, "Fire at the roses! They'll act like a lightning rod for your beam!" Kylie looked back, nodded, and adjusted the dial on the pistol again. She fired at the instructed target. The beam did as the man said and pushed itself into the monster's flesh, blowing it's arm off.
The monster howled and dropped to its knees as Kylie scrambled to the downed Knight, panicked. She rolled him over and grabbed him by the coat's lapels, shaking him hard, "Eduardo! Eduardo, wake up!"
Tuxedo Mask ran to her side and knelt down, him checking his pulse, "He's okay. Don't try to jerk him around; you don't know how the impact…"
SLAP! Kylie whacked the man across the face hard, him finally waking up as a result, "Ow!" The Knight uncrossed his eyes and looked up to find Kylie and Tuxedo Mask hanging over him. He rubbed his face and looked to the most likely suspect, "What the hell, Kylie?"
"You idiot! You stupid, stupid man!" The occultist shouted, "What in the hell were you trying to prove?!" She grabbed the lapels of his coat again and shook him like before, "Do you have any idea what you almost did?!" She had tears in her eyes. She was terrified of what just happened to him.
Before he could say anything, he saw an object heading toward them. Venus Knight grabbed Kylie, rolling over to his feet and leaping away as the object crashed into the ground where they were. Tuxedo Mask also lept away, him seeing the object approach. When they all looked back, they saw the charred dislodged arm of the Draugr; it used it's own arm as a weapon, it using its damaged hand to wield it. Venus Knight hit the ground and skid to a halt. Everything moved so fast, Kylie barely had time to process what just happened. "'Scuse me," the Knight said as he released the stunned occultist and again took off like a shot toward the beast.
A tear streaked down her face as she watched him - uncharacteristically - charge back into the fight like nothing happened. "Eduardo…" Tuxedo Mask landed beside her, "Kylie, are you alright?" She looked to him bewildered. She was too confused and emotional to really give an answer. He knew why, "You have to understand, there was something in his past he needed to correct. Something he did - or didn't do - has left him scarred. He has to do this."
Kylie was losing her grip on her emotions. She walked up and gripped the Japanese man by his tuxedo jacket like she did to Venus Knight before, "Why? Why is he acting like this? What did you do to him?"
"I unlocked his past memory," he answered, "He's acting on an impulse from his previous life."
"You mean," she released him and began shaking, "he's a reincarnation?" She turned to look at the man who was now jumping around the downed Draugr taking slashes at, and blasting it with his Proton Pack. She couldn't believe what she just heard.
"All of us are."
Kylie looked back to find the source of the voice who said that. It was Sailor Venus. With Sailor Moon's help, she slowly shuffled toward them all and watched Sailor Venus's Knight battle the Draugr. They all heard him scream in rage as he shot another golden-orange blast of energy from the palm of his hand. Sailor Venus watched as the man expelled energy that she knew he never used before, "Those last moments of the Moon Kingdom… it must have been hard for him."
"Moon Kingdom?" Kylie was lost, "I…"
"That's why we were all being called to your headquarters," Sailor Moon explained, "Egon and Dan wanted us to tell you because…"
Kylie started screaming, "Egon?! You mean Egon knew about you?!" She suddenly found an emotion to use, and it was more anchored in anger than previously seen, "You all lied to us!"
"We did it because…" Sailor Moon again started to explain, but was immediately cut off, "I don't care why you did it, you should have told us!"
The Draugr had got to it's feet, but now more of it's body had been shaved off from the Knight's sword and Proton Pack. The Knight moved so fast on his feet, the Draugr couldn't keep track of him on the ground. Every time it used it's flail, it missed him as he was now in a new spot. Whipping the flail around again Venus Knight quickly sheathed the sword and holstered the proton gun, jumped into the air, backflipped, and landed just behind where Kylie dropped the Ghost Trap. He quickly stood, stomped on the handle on the side of the device causing it to flip into the air in front of him, and caught it midair with the trap doors facing the Draugr.
The monster was charging him when he raised the trap higher, "This is it for you, chump! Say goodnight!" He activated the device and as soon as the trap's proton vortex shined on the beast, it began to dissolve like sugar in hot water. The wind took the dust of the monster and blew it away as the creature's essence was contained in the trap. After the first beast was trapped, Venus Knight turned on heal and began trapping the Draugr he chopped in half at the beginning of the battle. After the trap closed and smoke started to emanate from the device, he dropped the trap to his side and hunched over exhausted. After a moment he looked to the destruction before him, "Woah! What a friggan mess!"
"Venus Knight," he turned to the voice behind him. Tuxedo Mask approached as the Knight stood up straight and faced him, "Are you okay?" "Yeah," the Knight scoffed, "Fantastic." Tuxedo Mask stood before him and sighed in relief, "You did very weEELL!" Venus Knight grabbed him by his dress shirt and hoisted him into the air. He growled as he looked into the man's eyes from behind his mask, "This is all your fault, you son-of-a-bitch!"
Kylie saw this as well as the two Sailor Scouts and jumped a start. Kylie ran up to the Knight and tried to pull his arms down to release Tuxedo Mask as he continued to bark at the man in his hands, "Why did you make me remember it? All of it?! I didn't want to remember the past! Everything that happened! You dragged us into that stupid war and got damn near all of us killed!" He shook him with each emphasis, tears beginning to form in his brown eyes, "You made me see it all over again, you… you…" the exhaustion caught up with him as he put Tuxedo Mask back on his feet. The adrenaline high began to fade as he began to actively grow weary, his eyes looking into the man before him again.
Kylie watched as Venus Knight's mood changed again. She let go of his arms and saw him slowly come out of his rage state. Whatever just happened in Eduardo's head reverted back to normal, but the tears…
Sailor Moon cautiously helped Sailor Venus approach the man that was her Knight. She spoke as she approached, "Eduardo? Are you gonna be alright?"
"He's still a little shaken from the memory awakening," Tuxedo Mask explained, "but he'll be fine. I admit, I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction from you." Venus Knight ignored what was being said and looked to Sailor Venus. The look of pain, "Mina…" he released Tuxedo Mask and walked to his Sailor Scout. He put her arms around her causing Sailor Moon to promptly release her. He held her up and pressed her body against his…
Kylie saw this and instantly became disgusted, "What are you doing? She's injured! Stop groping her, you creepy…"
A bright yellow-tinted white light formed between them and shot into the sky. Kylie, Sailor Moon, and Tuxedo Mask stood back and shielded their eyes as the light reached the heavens and brightened the sky silently. Kylie peeked and realized what it was she was looking at, "After the first Draugr!" She took out her PKE meter and took readings. Nothing was still there like before. She began to put it together, "Dan is Lita's Knight. Lita was…" She then realized how Dan was knocked out in a coma, "He's healing her, isn't he?"
"He's giving up some of his life force to heal her," the masked man explained, "It's what all the Knights can do."
The light died down. Venus Knight pulled away from Sailor Venus and asked her if she was okay now. Releasing her to stand alone, Sailor Venus moved back and forth a bit to check herself, "Hey, my back's healed!" She looked to her Knight, "You really are my Knight!" She began walking toward him to put her arms around him…
Venus Knight's clothes flashed a silent flash as he reverted back into his civilian form; back into Eduardo Rivera. Shortly after, Eduardo fainted, Tuxedo Mask quickly standing to attention catching him. The Proton Pack almost caused him to drop Eduardo. After a moment, Eduardo's eyes opened faintly, "Whoa. I'm not sure what I just did," he said in a weary voice, "but I could use the mother of all siestas right now."
Sailor Moon picked up the loaded trap and smelled the smoke that emanated from it, "Wow, this thing reeks! This is worse than Melvin's Durian fruit collection!"
Kylie had just about had it with this whole thing, "Who are all of you? What are you? Witches? Aliens? You're not like anything I've ever seen before." Sailor Moon walked towards her and tried to explain again, "We're… well, we're not…" She didn't know what to say. She never really stopped and thought about how to explain herself to anyone of a scientific background. Kylie saw the trap in her hands and proceeded to snatch it away from her. Kylie immediately backed up and replied, "Stay away from me!"
"But…" was all the Sailor Scout got out before the Ghostbuster turned and started running down the street, the Ghost Trap leaving a smoke trail in her wake. She watched as she ran far into the maze of cars that stood between them and the firehouse, disappearing shortly after. She looked back to the three of them, a hurt look in her eyes, "What did we do?"
Eduardo managed to get back on his feet with the help of Tuxedo Mask as he explained, "Egon never told us about you. Ugh!" He stumbled a bit before stabilizing. He slowly limped to her on his injured foot and watched where his fellow Ghostbuster ran, "Egon is our teacher and friend. To her, he was more than that." Sailor Moon's mouth became agape from that, realizing what was happening. She looked to where the trap's smoke trail went as Eduardo stated, "She feels like…"
"Like she's been betrayed." Eduardo turned and saw Sailor Venus beside him. She concluded his thoughts for him. He nodded, "Exactly."
Tuxedo Mask walked beside Sailor Moon and stated aloud, "We better follow after her. We need to be at the Ghostbusters HQ, too."
They all began to walk as Sailor Moon remembered something, "Oh! Amy told me a couple of things. Guys, Eduardo's not the only one…"
As they walked down the damaged road, a number of clicks were heard on the nearby rooftops…
"Are you sure?" Dan, Amy, Roland, and Egon were in Egon's lab talking with Raye. Raye, Dan, and Roland were sitting at Roland's workbench on stools. It had been hours since they'd been told, but now Dan was worried. Amy and Egon were still at work over the siphoning phenomenon on his computer as Dan and Roland kept asking if there was anything else that went with the realization. Raye rubbed the arm she landed on the bridge with, it stinging a little bit. She looked to Dan and Roland and shrugged, "Yeah. It was clear as day. Guys, I'm not making this up! I really think he is!"
"Certainly would explain a lot," Roland stated, looking to Dan as he did.
Dan ran his fingers through his hair again. He'd been doing it over and over again as he gained more stress the more the day progressed. He sighed as he stood up and walked toward the lab door. Raye could feel it radiate off him that he was distraught. He walked out of the door into the lounge area and stood at the railing overlooking the garage. Raye watched the way he moved. It was defeated, "Roland, what's wrong with him?"
"After the Draugr attack just down the street, him and Lita had an argument."
"About what?"
"I don't know," he also stood from the lab stool and looked at him through the open door, "He got thrown through the front windows of the CitiGroup building and after he came back out - right in the middle of the fight - they started arguing."
"Geez," Raye commented, "and I thought my parents were adamant pointless arguers."
Downstairs, Janine and Lita sat at Venkman's desk. Due to her desk being broken, she moved the equipment that was on her's to the back desk. Janine had stopped typing and looked at Lita in confusion, "You think what?"
Lita looked rather upset. She was having a hard time explaining the feeling she was having, "I feel like he's tired of me. Like everything he's been doing with me was just for my benefit. I feel like he's just stringing me along."
Janine screwed her face into a look of confusion so telling, it nearly made her twitch. She pushed the keyboard in front of her away and stood from the desk. She walked beside Lita on her side of the desk and put a hand to her forehead, "No, you don't have a fever. When you were thrown in that dumpster, did you hit your head?"
Lita pushed the office manager's hand away from her and turned in her seat to look at her, annoyed, "Hey, what's your deal?"
"My deal?" Janine asked, putting her hands on her hips, "My 'deal' is that the man upstairs missed you so badly, he confessed to me in tears!" Lita broke out of her attitude and looked back to the desk as Janine continued, "If I hadn't told Egon what happened, you'd still be Tokyo!"
"In Tokyo…" Lita's voice was low, "...alone." Lita closed her eyes as a tear formed in the corner of one. Janine saw how that hurt her. She sighed and softened her voice, "I'm sorry, Lita, I didn't mean it to hurt you. He looked happier than I've ever remembered seeing him the day you came here. The only other time I saw him happy was…" she stopped a second to think it over. She was drawing a blank. "No, that really was the happiest I've seen him."
"If he really missed me," she wiped the tear from her eye as her voice quivered, "how come no one here heard of me until now?" Janine went to reply, but again, she drew a blank. That's right; he never even mentioned her before now. Lita looked back up to Janine and asked again, "Why has he never talked about me? Is it because he's embarrassed of me?" Janine was at a loss. She looked to the Japanese woman before her with a blank, uncertain look in her eyes. Lita again became upset and quickly stood from the chair, her running toward the staircase.
Roland approached Dan who was still overlooking the garage. He put his hand on his superior's shoulder, "Hey, you gonna be okay?"
Dan nodded his head, his tone of voice telegraphing his annoyance, "I should have seen it coming." Roland at first wasn't sure what he meant, but it didn't take long for him to figure it out, "How were you supposed to know? Egon removed our signatures from the meters."
Dan sighed, "You guys were under my nose the whole time. I feel like I should have some kind of sense, but…" he lowered his head as though he was ashamed. Roland watched as the man before him continuously mentally kicked himself for something he should have known. It was getting to a point where he was losing his composure. He gripped Dan by the shoulder and spun him around, barking as he did, "Look, you can't keep doing this to yourself! Questioning yourself like this is not going to help!"
Dan looked to him with solemn eyes. It was… off putting, "Considering everything I've done…" he was interrupted by the sound of someone running up the stairs. Lita came to the crest of the staircase and stopped when she noticed who was there. Dan turned to her, the look in his eyes the same as before. "Lita…" was all he got out when she started running again. She ran into Egon's lab and slammed the door behind her.
Dan looked back to Roland, sarcasm thick, "You know what, you're right, Roland. I'm a great success," he motioned toward the lab door, "Look how happy me and Lita are. Why should I ever question what I do?" He turned his back to Roland to walk to the bunk room…
His phone went off. He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and looked at the I.D. He answered it, "Eduardo? What's going on?... Why are you out of breath?..." there was a long pause as Eduardo explained what happened. There was a silence after Eduardo stopped talking. "You did what?..." Roland watched as Dan dropped his phone to the floor, his hand still in the same place as if he was holding it to his ear.
"Oh, shit."